Sunday, March 20, 2011

Speed Vegan Spring Giveaway!

So spring has finally sprung! It was 81 degrees in Memphis today, and I suddenly noticed my yard is in major need of mowing. I hate, hate, hate winter, so I'm super-duper excited for spring. I celebrated the equinox with some serious spring cleaning (baseboards, closets, dusting in hidden places I've never even thought to dust). And I also enjoyed this light spring meal of Navy Bean & Swiss Chard Soup from Speed Vegan:

Nothing says "early growing season" like fresh greens, and Swiss chard is one of my faves. I'm also a big fan of white beans, so this soup was the perfect combination. As with all the recipes in Alan Roettinger's Speed Vegan, this dish came together in a matter of minutes.

Lucky for one of y'all, the Book Publishing Company (publisher of Speed Vegan) is letting me give away a copy of Speed Vegan to one lucky reader! See the bottom of this post for details on how to enter. Read my review of Speed Veganhere.

You can't have soup without bread! So this was the perfect opportunity to make Sarah Kramer's Sassy Sandwich Bread, the March recipe in her Go Vegan! 2011 Wall Calendar:

The recipe is accompanied by an adorable parody album cover of the Beastie Boys' "Check Your Head." Instead of Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA, the picture features three gansta Sarah Kramer's in toboggans, sneakers, and shades with the words "Yeastie Boys" and "Check Your Bread." Cute, right? The bread, by the way, is absolutely delish! Soft and chewy and perfect topped with a little melted Daiya vegan cheese.Ok, now for the giveaway details. Leave me a comment about your favorite quick, gourmet-ish meal ideas.

For an extra chance to win, tweet about the giveaway and leave an additional comment letting me know you did. For an extra, extra chance, link back to the contest from Facebook and leave yet another comment to let me know. And finally, for a fourth chance, link back to this contest on your blog (if you have one), and leave yet another comment to fill me in. That's four chances to win!

If you don't have a Blogger account with a listed email, please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win. Good luck! I'll randomly select one winner on Wednesday night (March 23rd).

49 comments:

My favorite quick and gourmet meal would have to be Mofongo. Mofongo is lightly fried plantains with garlic, olive oil, and chicharrones. I replace the chicharrones with tempeh bacon, and then it's topped with a typically fried Caribbean meat, I never top it with the same thing twice. It seems gourmet when eaten in the states, because it's Puerto Rican.

My mother always makes it fancy and serves it in the mortar, but it doesn't really take that long. It was one of the first things I veganized.

Love your blog, the soup looks delicious. Togo speedy meal, gotta be a veggie sandwich, spread the veganaise, add the veggies, chow down. Top it off with soup, I always keep a variety of single serves available in the freezer to grab and go for lunch.

For a quick meal, I like simple tempeh tacos with cilantro and lime. They can be jazzed up with additional ingredients or left in all their simple glory. Also, rice, beans and kale are all nice on the side.

I don't know if it is gourmet-ish but it is speedy and great to use up leftovers. I always have left over hummus lurking in the fridge. So I add the hummus to a pot and add water and any seasoning (bouillon cube, spices, garlic,salt and pepper,etc)

Heat and stir over medium-low to medium high heat until heated through. Sometimes, left over veggies are added to the sauce. Sometimes, nooch is added for a cheesy sauce.The sauce is poured over pasta. Optional is cilantro or parsley. Voila, dinner!

One of my favorite quick and gourmet meals is Chloe Coscarelli's avocado pesto pasta. If you have the ingredients it's merely boiling the pasta and turning on the blender but it looks and tastes like so much more!

My favorite speedy gourmet dishes use the pressure cooker (you should REALLY read Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass!). I'd have to call it a tie between risotto with winter squash vs porcini muchrooms. Both can be on the table in less than 30 minutes with very little interactive time!

My favourite super quick 'gourmet-ish' meal is a quick-cooking soup. I'll throw in some already cooked beans, a tin of tomatoes, and some quick-cooking veggies (whatever I have on hand). Season and voila, there you have it.

I don't really do "gourmet," but in about thirty minutes I can create a pretty amazing smoked tofu sandwich with pickled carrots and onions and garlic veganaise on homemade sea-salt topped wheat rolls. A sandwich may not be gourmet by most peoples standards, but when you're used to eating a good ol' pb&j, this sandwich ranks pretty high on the gourmet scale.

My favorite quickie is to cook quinoa or couscous with a can of lentil soup instead of just water...so yummy! I only just discovered this so I must try other soups and grains together...then maybe top them with breadcrumbs, Daiya, crumbled tortilla chips, etc and bake them as casseroles. Lots of experimenting to do!

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.